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Wildflowers of the Santa Monicas

Wildflowers and Santa Monica Bay from Topanga State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains

Wildflower-lovers take note: the Santa Monicas are in bloom. I biked Temescal Ridge to the Hub to Trippet Ranch to Parker Mesa to Paseo Miramar to the mighty Pacific today, and I (more)

Williamson Creek

Start of the Williamson/Shepherd Creek Drainage

By reputation the Shepherd/Williamson Creek drainage is impassible—there must be some reason, after all, that they began the Shepherd Pass trail in an entirely different (more)

The 2023 South Sierra Snowpack

Owens Valley, Owens Lake, & the South Sierra from Mount Baxter, California

Beware those tempting faces and gullies, my friends. At nearly 300% of normal, we've got yesterday's snowpack, to be sure, but we've still got today's temperatures. Dave (more)

The San Gabriel Traverse

The San Gabriel Traverse

I don't know when, exactly, I first started thinking about skiing across the San Gabriels, but 2008 (the first time I climbed and skied Baden-Powell) is probably a good (more)

Too Much Snow?

Clearing Storm and Sunset, Pacific Palisades, California

Well the good news is we'll be skiing through summer—if we care to. Mammoth Mountain likely already has enough snow to carry them to November. I wonder what they'll (more)

WWSRA Mammoth 2023

Mammoth Mountain's Chair 23

What with all the storm craziness and urban skiing I forgot to post out links to my video reviews from the 2023 WWSRA show at Mammoth Mountain this past February, so here (more)

Telegraph’s South Face

Telegraph's South Face

Looking at Telegraph Peak's south face from Ontario Peak in 2006, I remember thinking, if that ever has snow on it, I should ski it. Well snow finally arrived, and I was lucky (more)

What’s Your Dream?

What's Your Dream?

I came to Los Angeles a small-town kid chasing elusive dreams and let's be honest, you can imagine how that went. This is a city that tends to grind people like me to (more)

Kendrick Peak

Kendrick Peak

As you all know, my fondness for off-the-beaten-path adventures sometimes often goes awry, but in this case, I found surprisingly good skiing on Kendrick Peak, just northwest of (more)

High Variance Equals High Risk

NWS Los Angeles Snow Forecast

Forecast models are calling for the possibility of snow as low as 1000 feet above sea level virtually state-wide, and NWS Los Angeles has issued a (not quite) unprecedented (more)

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About SierraDescents

When there is snow, SierraDescents is Andy Lewicky's California backcountry skiing and mountaineering website. Without snow, sierradescents becomes an ill-tempered hiking and climbing blog.

Pray for snow.